Posted on 09/18/2008 3:11:56 PM PDT by attiladhun2
According to Jack Cashill (see this link), there is mounting evidence to indicate that Barack Obama was not the author of his now famous memoir, Dreams From My Father. His research into Obama's literary background shows that, prior to 1990, Obama had written nothing of note. Then like a bolt from the blue, Obama produces a work described by Time Magazine as "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician."
Cashill observes, "I had questioned whether the influential Muslim crackpot who paved Obama’s way into Harvard, Khalid al Mansour, might have greased his way into the world of publishing as well." However, upon comparing the text of Obama's book to that of William Ayers' 2001 memoir Fugitive Days, Cashill now believes that the Obama book is substantially a product of the unrepentant former terrorist. He cites two passages from each book as evidence:
“I picture the street coming alive, awakening from the fury of winter, stirred from the chilly spring night by cold glimmers of sunlight angling through the city.” Bill Ayers, Fugitive Days.
“Night now fell in midafternoon, especially when the snowstorms rolled in, boundless prairie storms that set the sky close to the ground, the city lights reflected against the clouds.” Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father.
We already know Obama has not been forthcoming about his relationship with Ayers. If Ayers is, indeed, the real author of the Obama memoir, it could well reveal Obama's true puppet master. Were it a shadowy billionaire like George Soros, that would be bad enough, but a fanatical Marxist ideologue and unindicted terrorist!
A forensic textual analysis of Ayers' and Obama's books could answer this question. It could also be the sword that finally slays the presidential asperations of the junior senator from Illinois.
No, it’s not “evidence” in the same way that duplication of exact phrases would be evidence of plagiarism. But do I see and hear a cadence and rhythm and style that is oddly similar. Writer’s have distinct voices. So it’s not at all a stretch to consider the possibility.
That said, these are only two passages, and the entirety of the two books would need to be considered. Or, Obama may have just been enamored of Ayers’ writing and tried to emulate it—especially since he had no clear voice and writing skills of his own at the time, evidenced by his defaulting on the first book contract he’d been given an advance and something like 2 years to produce.
I can’t offer an opinion, not having read “Dream of My Father.”
Since Obama graduated magna cum laude from HLS, I don't have trouble believing that he very likely got in based on his academic merits. The 3 or 4 years of community organizing work probably looked pretty good also to the admissions people especially if he had formulated a more thoughtful reason for studying the law than the other students who had just graduated from college.
On the other hand, if he is somehow linked to this Khalid al-Mansour character, the nature of this connection should be public knowledge. I was surprised that there doesn't seem to be a Wikipedia page for Dr. al-Mansour although there is one for Percy Sutton.
Interestingly, there’s a 20 Questions feature on Amazon, with a Q&A about how he wrote the book. My computer’s running slowly tonight, so I’ll dig out the link tomorrow. He said writing the first book was hard, and that he wasn’t sure he could do it. And being a night owl, he writes at night.
Both books were published by Three Rivers Press, the trade paperback imprint of Crown Publishing in NY. It was published in Aug 2004, three years after lhe graduated from Harvard Law School.
Damned impressive contract and advance for a first author. I wonder who the acquisitions editor for the book was, or more significantly, who the decision-maker for this m/s was.
Bump
That makes sense.
BTW, I read a passage from one of the books giving a physical description of Frank Davis, his Communist mentor in Hawaii, as "dewlapped."
Dewlapped. An exremely uncommon description, often used to describe the excess skin around a dog's neck.
I find it difficult to believe that a callow Obama had this skill with words.
I doubt if he knows the word even now.
If I were interviewing him, I’d ambush him with “What does ‘dewlapped’ mean?”
He wouldn’t have a clue, I guarantee.
Sorry to bust your balloon, but my understanding is that about 50% of HLS graduates have a MCL on their diplomas. The one that actually means something is SUMMA Cum Laude.
And, in point of fact, all indications are that Obama graduated from Columbia with a notably undistinguished academic record - I’ve read that it was C+. Hardly enough to make the 7,000 applicant - 400 acceptance cut for Harvard Law.
I looked this up a while ago and I was only able to find the numbers for Harvard College. I think you may be getting mixed up with all latin honors, the lowest of which is "cum laude". At Harvard, about 50% receive some type of latin honors. What I read is that all the magna's and summa's together comprise at most 20% of the class. So Obama was at least in the top 20% of his HLS class, assuming HLS follows roughly the same pattern for latin honors as Harvard undergraduate.
BTW sometime in the last two weeks a graduate of Harvard Law School posted on here and said that getting a magna cum laude from HLS is a superior intellectual achievement.
And, in point of fact, all indications are that Obama graduated from Columbia with a notably undistinguished academic record - I’ve read that it was C+.
In point of fact, since he hasn't released his transcripts you really have no evidence that he had a C+ or any other particular average.
Thanks for the update on the latin honors at Harvard. If the 50% figure also includes the Cum Laudes, then obviously I was unfairly downgrading the MCLs.
As for the One’s grades at Columbia, true I don’t have a primary source, but the secondary source I read appeared to me to be reliable. I will see if I can retrace my steps to it and give you the reference for your own assessment.
I’d forgotten about the $80,000 advance and the trip to Bali to “write” the book.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been necessary for Ayers or the ghostwriter to go to Bali, in any case, but was done simply to keep Barry out of the way while he supposedly wrote the book. Bali. Of all places.
I think Obama was "recruited" long before Harvard. I guess the big question is who is behind it: the Muslims or the Communists. That is, who is using whom?
Coming from a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, this error is astounding for what is says about both Obama and Harvard.
I saw that error as well: It was, I believe, from the one piece of “legislation” that Obama actually wrote in Illinois.
Harvard Law review “editor” - How would we know if he never did anything there? We know he never wrote anything. Would Harvard cover up for a token editor elected to a token position, but not having to “do” anything once elected?
> it would also be useful to verify that the same person wrote “Dreams of My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.” <
Excellent suggestion! Let’s hope there’s a forensic linguist reading this thread!
I really must protest.
This is just preposterous. Two sentences have been pulled out of two different books. Ayres book is 304 pages, Obama’s is 464.
That two sentences pulled from these two books have similar sentence structure means literally nothing. It demonstrates only that they are both writing in English.
The rest of the linked article is a ridiculous pyramid of speculation piled on speculation in which yawning logical chasms are effortlessly leaped in a single paranoid bound.
That an author had trouble completing a book on time and then finally did complete it - gee, that never happens unless a vile reptilian conspiracy is afoot!
Come on people.
Sweetness and Light has the full text of law examinations that he wrote when he was teaching at the University of Chicago. They are very long and in my opinion boring—but then I am not a lawyer. However since they include long passages of narrative as he sets up the case they do provide an example of his writing style and ability.
www.sweetness-light.com
Carol Platt Liebau, who blogs at Townhall knows. She was there with him. Sometimes she fills in for Hugh Hewitt on his radio show—a very smart lady.
We agree. It is preposterous to jump to conclusions based on things plucked out of context. So you might want to read my post again. I believe you overlooked the part where I agreed with you, noting that these were, after all, just 2 sentences, and that nothing can be concluded from it. I further allowed as to how a similarity in rhythm or style can occur innocently. You can see no similarity in style, I do. I concluded nothing of that. You did.
Well, I don’t mean to pick on you, so I apologize for sounding like I was. Your rejoinder is a fair one.
Best regards,
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